By Saul Molobi
The morning mist hung gently over the Drakensberg mountains as delegates reconvened for Day Two of the Drakensberg Growth Summit, convened by the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation. If the opening day had set the tone for sober reflection on South Africa’s social and political crossroads, the second day turned the spotlight onto the political economy of post-apartheid development — and the nation’s uncertain path between stability and transformation.
Hosted under the theme “Building a Just and Sustainable Future through Inclusive Growth,” the day drew together senior government officials, diplomats, economists, and thought-leaders to probe South Africa’s economic trajectory within a volatile global landscape. The conversations, often intense yet deeply reflective, moved seamlessly from national self-examination to international cooperation — weaving together the voices of scholars, statesmen, and foreign partners into a shared meditation on the future of governance, equity, and growth.
From a hard-hitting economic analysis of South Africa’s 30-year integration into global markets, to impassioned calls for the professionalisation of the state, to the reaffirmation of global solidarity from China and the European Union, the summit’s second day exposed the layered complexities of South Africa’s democratic project.
As former President Kgalema Motlanthe and his Foundation continue to position the Summit as a space for honest dialogue, the Drakensberg once again became a metaphor — serene yet rugged, timeless yet demanding ascent. Here, amidst quiet peaks, South Africa’s challenges were laid bare: a democracy that has achieved stability but not justice, a market that has delivered profit but not shared prosperity, and a state that must now rediscover its developmental purpose.
A Nation Stable, Yet Unequal
Opening the morning session, a leading political economist traced South Africa’s transformation through numbers that told a sobering story.
“After 1994,” he explained, “we shifted from a semi-closed, racially exclusive economy to one fully integrated into global trade and finance. The trade-to-GDP ratio rose from forty to sixty percent; foreign investment surged; and the rand became one of the most traded emerging-market currencies.”
But what appeared a success on paper masked deeper contradictions. “Corporate profits flowed abroad, while productive investment stagnated. Financialisation overtook industrialisation. The economy became stable — but unequal.”
The data revealed a dual economy: a globally connected corporate core and a marginalised labour majority. The state achieved macroeconomic discipline yet constrained its developmental reach. “Redistribution has softened poverty,” he concluded, “but inequality remains structurally embedded. We have produced a deracialised elite without structural transformation.”
China’s Voice: Partnership, Not Paternalism
Against this backdrop, the conference turned its gaze outward. His Excellency Ambassador Wu Peng of the People’s Republic of China — nursing a hoarse voice, his statement read by an aide — assured delegates that Beijing’s newly announced export controls on rare-earth materials were “defensive, not restrictive.”
He then placed China firmly within the camp of developing nations. “China is and will remain a member of the Global South,” the statement read. “We will not seek new privileges in the WTO, but we will stand for a fair, multilateral order.”
Tracing decades of China–Africa solidarity, he pointed to trade and industrial cooperation as evidence of mutual respect. China now imports the bulk of South Africa’s macadamias and pecans and is preparing to open its market to local stone fruits. “Our relationship is not charity,” he said. “It is shared development. China does not seek to increase its exports through these arrangements; it seeks to raise Africa’s.”
Announcing Beijing’s unilateral decision to extend zero-tariff treatment to all products from fifty-three African countries, the Ambassador declared: “Our partnership with South Africa is never directed at any third party. It is driven by mutual trust and the dream of the Global South rising together.”
Europe’s Response: Values, Trust and Tangible Benefits
Representing the European Union, Dr Fulgencio Garrido Ruiz, Deputy Head of Mission, offered a complementary yet contrasting perspective.
“South Africa and the European Union share a partnership of values, trust, and mutual benefit,” he said. “We may differ on some policies, but our compass is the same: democracy, human rights, and multilateralism.”
Citing a record of high-level engagements in 2025 — including President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to Brussels — Garrido Ruiz noted that the EU remains South Africa’s largest trading partner and investor, with over 1,200 European companies employing half a million South Africans.
“Our model,” he argued, “is one where investment transfers technology, builds skills, and creates value chains. Take the Green Ammonia Project — it’s a partnership that advances both sustainability and industrial growth.”
He was candid about the changing global order: “Exclusive partnerships are over. The future lies in cooperation among equals. The EU and South Africa are not in separate camps — we are in the same boat, navigating the same storm.”
Fikeni: ‘Efficiency Must Replace Vague Dreams’
Bringing the discussion back home, Professor Somadoda Fikeni, Chairperson of the Public Service Commission, delivered one of the day’s most stirring addresses.
“What we need now,” he said, “is both agency and urgency. Criminal networks plan with military precision, while people of goodwill dream vaguely. That is why corruption wins.”
Fikeni lamented the neglect of the public sector — “the vehicle of our democracy,” as he called it. “We romanticise our Constitution,” he warned, “while our institutions decay. The people do not experience democracy through speeches — they experience it through services.”
He framed professionalising the public service as the moral and operational cornerstone of rebuilding the state. “There’s a political economy of inefficiency,” he said bluntly. “Some delays are not accidental; they are designed to protect interests.”
Quoting Asian examples, Fikeni argued that meritocracy, data literacy, and foresight must become the DNA of South Africa’s new bureaucracy. “If our senior managers can only use PowerPoint, not data analytics, we are doomed,” he quipped to laughter. “Professionalism, not politics, must drive delivery.”
Maimane: Redefining ‘The People’
Taking the podium next, Dr Mmusi Maimane, former opposition leader and now member of the Parliamentary Appropriations Committee, challenged the audience to rethink who “the people” actually are.
“In our politics,” he said, “we define people by race, tribe, or faith — not by shared ideals. That is why we have lost the sense of nationhood.”
Drawing on his committee’s public hearings, Maimane painted a stark fiscal picture: nearly a quarter of the budget goes to debt service, another third to salaries, and over sixty percent to the social wage — leaving little for infrastructure or growth. “The state has become an employment agency rather than a catalyst for opportunity,” he said.
He warned that South Africa faces three moral tensions: the contested politics of land and urbanisation; the “politics of shame,” where citizens humiliated by state failure turn to populists who exploit their pain; and the unresolved transition from liberation to governance.
“The Government of National Unity,” he observed, “lacks an organising mission. Without a shared script, the actors simply improvise.”
Calling for electoral reform to strengthen accountability, Maimane urged that “representation must come with proximity. Councillors should live among the people they serve.”
His final appeal was educational: “If eight out of ten ten-year-olds cannot read for meaning, we are breeding economic blindness. Africa’s mission is to move 300 million people from poverty into the middle class. Only then can democracy deliver dignity.”
Motsoaledi: Health as a Human Right, Not a Commodity
Closing the session, Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi offered both diagnosis and remedy for a world where healthcare is increasingly captured by markets.
“Since Alma-Ata in 1978, the world has declared health a human right,” he said. “But we have turned it into a commodity.”
He decried what he called the financialisation of health — a system driven by profit rather than prevention. “Private hospitals perform unnecessary procedures for profit, while public health is dismissed as inferior. Yet our public hospitals perform miracles daily.”
Motsoaledi’s own story drew applause: he had recently undergone an eye operation at Johannesburg’s St John’s Eye Hospital — a public facility. “The same surgeon who operated on me trains many in the private sector,” he said. “If I had done it privately, I’d be called wise. Doing it publicly, I was called brave.”
He noted that South Africa’s National Health Insurance (NHI) faces eight separate court challenges. Yet he insisted that universal health coverage is non-negotiable. “No family should fall into poverty because a loved one gets sick,” he said. “Health and economy are two sides of one coin — you cannot have one without the other.”
Under South Africa’s G20 Presidency, he announced, health ministers will convene in Limpopo next month to address global inequities in health financing. “We will be joined by the WHO Director-General and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz,” he said. “Together, we will reaffirm that healthcare belongs to the people — not the shareholders.”
From Global Dialogue to National Direction
By the day’s end, a theme had crystallised: South Africa’s struggle is not only political or economic — it is moral, institutional, and global all at once.
The Chinese spoke of shared development, the Europeans of partnership through trust, the South Africans of state capacity and citizen dignity. Each, in their own language, called for a new balance between markets and humanity, between openness and self-determination.
As the conference drew to a close, one could sense both anxiety and hope in the hall — anxiety at how fragile the democratic project has become, hope that its renewal might yet come from within.
“We have achieved macro stability,” the economist had said at the start, “but not transformation.” By sunset, the message had evolved: transformation will not come from markets or politics alone — it will come from a nation rediscovering its agency.
And perhaps, in that mountain air where global leaders and South African thinkers met eye to eye, the country took a small step closer to doing just that.